Kenneth Olin "Ken" Maynard

 Kenneth Olin "Ken" Maynard (July 21, 1895 – March 23, 1973)

Maynard was a motion picture stuntman and actor. He appeared in more than 90 films over 20 years with his white cowboy hat, fancy shirt, and a pair of six-shooters. Maynard served in the United States Army during World War I. After the war, Maynard returned to show business as a circus rider with Ringling Brothers. When the circus was playing in Los Angeles, California, actor Buck Jones encouraged Maynard to try working in the movies. Maynard soon had a contract with Fox Studios. He first appeared in silent motion pictures in 1923 as a stuntman or supporting actor. In 1924 he began working in western features, where his horsemanship and rugged good looks made him a cowboy star. Maynard's silent features showcased his daredevil riding, photographed fairly close so audiences could see that Maynard was doing his own stunts with his white stallion "Tarzan." The action scenes were so spectacular that they were often reused in films of the 1930s, starring either Maynard himself or John Wayne, or Dick Foran. Maynard made a successful transition to talking pictures and became the movies' first singing cowboy (a 1929 "Voice of Hollywood" short has Maynard singing "Drunken Hiccoughs" in a wailing tenor). After his career ended in 1944, he owned and operated a small circus featuring rodeo riders but it vanished along with the millions he made as a cowboy star.

During these years, Maynard was supported by an unknown benefactor, long thought to be Gene Autry. Maynard died of stomach cancer in 1973 at the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills, California, age 77. He is buried at Forest Lawn-Cypress.